City-wide set for two days

Wednesday

Feb 20, 2013 at 7:32 PMFeb 20, 2013 at 7:34 PM

For this year's 25th annual Neosho City Wide Garage Sale, there will be couple of changes, it was announced during a press conference Wednesday in front of the former Neosho Area Chamber of Commerce office, the rock house at 308 W. Spring St., Neosho.

Todd G. Higdon

For this year's 25th annual Neosho City Wide Garage Sale, there will be couple of changes, it was announced during a press conference Wednesday in front of the former Neosho Area Chamber of Commerce office, the rock house at 308 W. Spring St., Neosho.

"The change this year is we went to the city council and asked for permission to go from one day to two days," said Gib Garrow, director of economic development, Neosho Area Chamber of Commerce. "We are just test driving that this year, but if we feel like if it is pretty successful, I think that we are pretty convinced that it may need to be that way. However, we kind of committed that we won't do it if there is a school day on that Friday. I think the good thing is we will have an opportunity for those who are in the education system to also have a sale on Friday, plus it will give our visitors the opportunity to spend two days… we hope the two days will give added people in every neighborhood."

This year's event – marked as Missouri's largest – will be held on Friday, April 5 and Saturday, April 6. Neosho R-5 School District students will be out of school on Friday, April 5.

Garrow spoke about the origins of the citywide garage sale.

"We announced this 25 years and one week ago to the day in this spot at the chamber office," he said. "Basically, it was an idea that came over years that I traveled in Jaycees and saw different events. Originally, we had seen them as subdivisions garage sales. And when you get into a town of 10,000, why don't we try to do it citywide? It was pretty simple, if you want your address on the map, pay $3, then we just bought advertisements in specific garage sale sections of the newspaper."

The second change this year will have to do with the chamber doing an online listing/map of the sales.

"One of the things that we are doing different this year is with the website neoshocc.com, you will find a webpage, but what we want to encourage is the people in Neosho to log on," he said. "We are going to have an electronic list and electronic map and we will make that available to the public, those coming from all over will be able to log on and download that maybe on noon [April 4] so that if you are coming, you will get the chance to look it over, but there will still be the advertising, the big ads in the Neosho Daily News."

"What we are encouraging the residents to do is go onto the site and have them put their address only, also state from the (part of) town that they are from lined up by northwest, northeast, southwest, southeast sections of the city," added Shana Griffin, executive director of the chamber. "It is free, no charge to the residents. And we really want everyone who is going to have a sale to put that on so that we can keep track of how many garage sales we are going to have. Our goal is to have more than 500 registered sales and we hope that we can surpass that."

Griffin also noted for those who don't have Internet access, they can come by in person to either the chamber office or Neosho City Hall to write it on a paper form.

The event draws countless people to Neosho. In the past, an estimated 300-350 will host a garage sale – held rain or shine.

"It is the busiest day in Neosho," Garrow said. "It has been a good event."

For more information, please contact the Neosho Area Chamber of Commerce at 451-1925.